What can you say about Chile Chico, well absoloutely nothing, it was a miserable town filled with miserable people and thats being kind. The only reason we were there was to get the ferry to Puerto Ibanez across Lago General Carrera. The digs were appalling, they were a cabin at the back of a s***ty resturant that must have been a cheap stop off for fat, greasy lorry drivers. I couldn't work out if the receprionist was smiling or she had suffered a stroke in her face a few years earlier but she looked miserable as hell even if she was smiling. We decided to go out for something to eat just to get out the digs and we ended up in what Chile Chico would describe as gourmet but the rest of the world would describe as dire s*** hole. Needless to say the meal was crap and the waitress's, locals and manager were having a, who can look the most miserable, competition. In the morning we awoke early to get the 8 am ferry and the morning got weirder and weirder until we discovered we were the thickest people in the world. First of all the reception wasn't open so we couldn't pay so we slipped the money under the door with a note. Then, when we got to the ferry they wouldn't let us on as they looked as if they had all just got up and weren't ready to leave for hours. Then when we eventually got on, at what we thought was 8 am, we were one of the first. Over the next hour people were ambling on the ferry as if they hadn't a care and then we had the embarrasment of the hostel owner coming on and accusing us of doing a runner, after clearing that one up the ferry disembarked at 9am and then Donna realised that when we came over the border, the day before, we had forgotten to put the clock forward an hour, DUHH!!!!! The crossing across the lake was beautiful and the scenery fantastic. We disembarked the ferry at Puerto Ibanez and picked up a minibus that drove through even more beautiful scenery for about 1 - 2 hours before we arriving at our destination of Coyhaique and the start of our journey up the Carretera Austral. The Carretera Austral is a mainly narrow gravel road that connects the small towns of the southern part of Chile to the central part. This road has only been in existence since about 1980 and for the period of time before this the remote towns of southern Chile could only be reached by boat or small plane. COYHAIQUE This was quite a large touristy town for the Carretera Austral stretch of road and the only town to have tarmaced road going north and south for about 50km's. Here we stayed at Mr Earwig's house, Mr Earwig because although the room was clean, and had beautiful views down the valley, the bed was infested in earwigs, well it had 2, and one I found when I was actually in bed and it crawled on me. The guy who owned it was pleasant enough, although I had my suspicions he was gay, why, well he was very camp (bit like a cross betwen Ray Reardon(famous snooker player about 30 years ago) and Michael Barrymore, which would make him very good at potting the brown, I suppose)) and as soon as they met he hit it off with Donna like a house on fire. Donna seems to have this persona that gay men love and they adore her for it. From here we started our drive up the Carretera Austral to a small town called Puyuhuapi. Along the way we stopped off at a couple of towns for a toilet break, one of which had a strange man who insisted I take his photo, why, I don't know but he seemed pretty happy that I did!!! PUYUHUAPI This small town of around 500 people is about as remote as you can get and is in a very beautiful setting on a fjord surrounded by lush green hills. We spent about 3 days here and we were lucky enough to meet a retired couple from Chiloe (Hugo and Wanda) who let us tag along with them for a day in their 4 wheel drive. Here we saw the hanging glacier in the Parque National Queulat, trekked to a waterfall and went for walk in the rain forest, which was amazing as all the trees were so green, even the bark had a beautiful mossy green look which gave the feeling of walking through an enchanted wood that you read about in fantasy books. We even saw dolphins in the fjord, which were swimming so slowly it was if they were putting a show on for us. We spent the rest of the time chilling out by the side of the fjord and doing the treks up the side of the valley to look down on the lazy little town of Puyuhuapi. We will certainly remember Puyuhuapi with fond memories. CHAITEN Again, the drive up the Carretera Austral from Puyuhuapi to Chaiten was beautiful, narrow gorges with green trees sprouting up from the cliff face then changing too wide valleys surrounded by hills and mountains with the rain forests covering them in a dew drenched lush green blanket, all the time running parallel to a fast running river. Here we stayed in a Hostel called the'Hexagon', which was run by a German called Stefan. Who turned out to be one of the most talented people I have ever met. He runs the hostel from Oct - Mar (but using his spare time to go fishing) and then goes back to Germany to earn his money doing 'Street Oragami' (don't know whether that is spelt right but paper folding). What a life!!!! Also, he plays classical guitar (he used to do it profesionally but now only as a hobbie) which he entertained us with each evening. Here we also met 3 austrians (Herrwich, Ziggy and Monica) and an american couple (Jenny and Doug), who we eventually travelled to Chiloe with. Whilst in Chaiten did some walks around the hostel, trekking into the rain forests and also walked up the river to the sea front, which gave fantastic views of the surrounding mountains.